May 25th #4
It hurts a lot. Although possibly more from seeing my dad act the way he did. He was drunk last night, then again this morning, and I’ve never seen him so angry.
Damon presses his lips against my cheek, scattering whispers of kisses across it .
“I’ll kiss it and make it better,” he says softly.
I take his face in my hands and look deeply into his brilliant eyes. “I’m not feeling better quite yet,” I say as my eyes move toward his lips.
He gives me a little smile, then presses his lips against mine.
The kiss is sweet but still has some fire behind it because I can feel his heart beating fast. I know he’s holding back. But I don’t want him to, so I slide my hand up to the nape of his neck and pull him in a little tighter.
Even then, the kiss remains soft.
When he finally pulls away, he slides the pad of his finger slowly across my bottom lip, touching it in an almost-reverent way.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time,” he says. “Since that day I first saw you.”
I expect for desire to overcome him and for him to kiss me again—harder. But he doesn’t. He just keeps staring at my lips, at his finger gliding across them.
I let out a sigh. Okay, it’s possibly more of a moan.
Because his simple gesture lights me up inside.
I pucker my lips together and kiss his finger, which causes him to look at me.
“How are you, really?” he asks.
“Well, I have recently discovered that there is merit to the saying, Kiss it and make it better .”
His lips turn up into a smile, and he chuckles. “Emotionally? ”
I suck in a breath and heavily exhale. “I don’t know. I feel numb. I get that they were trying to protect me from the truth of my dad’s addiction, but I seriously don’t know how they kept something like this from me.”
“You said that you and your dad were close. I don’t know about you, but my sisters almost idolize their daddy,” he says gently. His finger has left my lips and is now caressing the top of my hand.
I nod. “I kinda did too. And you’re right. This has sort of shattered that illusion.”
“Don’t let it, Ainsley. Your dad loves you, and just because he had a secret doesn’t make that any less true.”
“Do you think I should go try to talk to him?” I wonder.
“Maybe at some point, but not right now. He needs to sober up and figure his life out. And I’m sure his brothers will help.”
His hand has moved from the top of mine to covering my knee. He’s holding it like he did at the reception. And I really like it. I also love how concerned he is about me. About my feelings.
“They were so patient with him, both last night and today. It’s weird how he professes to hate them, but they are the ones he always turns to. Things make a lot more sense though. Why he never wanted to come to reunions and stuff.”
I look down, my eyes mesmerized by his hand on my knee, but when Damon says, “Do you think it’s because he was embarrassed?” my head snaps up in his direction .
“That makes so much sense,” I tell him, nodding my head and replaying his excuses over the years. “It wasn’t because he didn’t like them. In a way, they represented everything he kept losing.”
Scene of the crime.
Damon
“Speaking of losing,” she says, “how is it that I lost my clothes last night?”
“Oh, now’s not the time to talk about that,” I say with a grin.
“When is?”
“That’s why I invited you to the lazy river today. It’s the scene of the crime. Well, one of them anyway.”
“You saw me naked,” she states, cocking her head at me.
“That I did,” I say, trying to control a smirk. “You saw me too.”
“You’re looking very smug,” she teases.
And I love that she’s not freaking out about this anymore. Of course, it probably helps that she knows nothing happened—sexually at least.
“Well, I quite enjoyed last night, if you must know.” Because it was fun.
“And why’s that?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at me .
“There was a lot of nakedness involved. In a lot of places. A naked scavenger hunt, if you will.”
She closes her eyes and covers them with her palm.
I move her hand away from her face, then put my lips against hers again.
Deeper this time, with more passion. Not out of control, in the way I wish I could be, but there is a flicker of tongue, and I’m pressed tightly against her body.
But I’m definitely still holding back because after a nearly smoldering kiss, I somehow manage to let go of her.
She starts talking again. “On a scale of one to ten, how embarrassed should I be?”
“Zero. Seriously, there’s really nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not lying. I don’t think you should feel embarrassed. But if you want a few details, okay, I’ll spill. Let’s see. You told me a lot about your roommate, Sammy. And once you did, you wanted to video chat with him. Immediately. But I suggested you wait until … well, you were clothed.”
“Well, thank you for that,” she mutters.
“And you, um, might have mentioned, quite a few times, a certain seven-month sexual drought.”
Her face instantly turns red, and I can see the fire of embarrassment burning across her cheeks.
“Which I will admit,” I continue, “really made me laugh. I’d never heard it called that before. But then Sammy called you. I answered. We chatted. ”
“Oh no,” she says. “Sammy probably told you both our life stories.”
“Oh, yes,” I confirm. “He told me all about his Roman and your Brad. The boys who broke your hearts. You cried over that. Not, like, bawling or anything, but some tears were shed. He was on speaker.”
She nervously scratches her eyebrow. It’s cute.
“The good news though is that I managed to get you to bed before we could skinny-dip. Which was a feat in and of itself. So, that’s how you can repay me. We go skinny-dipping for real sometime while we’re here.”
“And we really didn’t … do anything ? Like, not even a drunken kiss?”
I shake my head. “Of course not. One, I wouldn’t take advantage of you when you were drunk. And two, because I want you to remember our first kiss. Our first time.”
“I want to remember it too,” she says.
“Really? Like, you want to?” I reply, my eyes going wide. Other things might be responding as well. “Because I’ve been getting a lot of mixed messages. You know, you had those four reasons why we couldn’t be together. Which was really just two. And I’m sorry, but neither has merit.”
She blows out a breath of air.
“We can revisit that conversation later.” I stand and pull her up with me. “Now that you’ve had a bit of time to settle down, what do you want to do?”
“Could we go check on my mom? I’m worried about her. ”
“Of course. And we’ll swing by your house so you can pick up a swimsuit. Unless you want to do the naked thing today too.”
She slaps me on the arm, her spunkiness coming back out. “Shut up.”
Sugar coating it.
Ainsley
When we arrive, Damon says, “Not a single golf cart in the driveway. Looks like no one is here.”
“I want to make sure,” I tell him.
We go into the house and find that it appears to be empty.
“Have you looked at the activity board today?” he asks me, grabbing my hand and leading me to the laundry room, where it hangs.
“You were right,” I say after reading it. “Looks like both our families are at the lazy river today. Let me try calling my mom.”
When she doesn’t answer, I shake my head.
“Why don’t you take a pass through the house and outside? I’ll go upstairs, throw on my swimsuit, and then check to see if she’s in her room.”
After a sweep of the house, neither of us finds anyone, so we make our way to the resort.
When we get to the lazy river, I find my mom lounging under an umbrella, flanked by Damon’s mom, Lori, and his stepmom, Jennifer.
“I’ll go get us some waters. You go talk to your mom,” Damon says.
I make a beeline over there.
“Oh, honey, how are you?” she asks me when she sees me. She slides her legs over and pats the chaise for me to sit down. “Let me take a look at that scratch.”
I plop down, and she runs her fingers gently across my face.
“It’s not too deep, so no stitches required.”
And I know she’s seen it all at work and is correct in her assessment.
“How are you doing?” I ask. “Dad was really angry.”
“After everything that has happened, it’s understandable that he’s feeling pretty desperate.
But he normally doesn’t drink or act like that.
I know that he rushed at me, but he’s never ever hurt me, Ainsley, and despite it all, I don’t believe that he ever would.
And now we’re having some Painkillers so we can relax. ”
“Like, drugs?” I exclaim.
Lori holds up a tropical drink with a pineapple garnish. “ This drink is called a Painkiller,” she clarifies.
“Oh,” I say, suddenly feeling embarrassed, but I still need to know something. “Where’s Dad? ”
“In jail, actually,” Mom replies.
“He what?! Why?!” My dad can’t be in jail!
“As you can imagine, your uncle is well acquainted with the local sheriff. They took your father to the station’s holding cell so that he can sober up.”
“But that’s so mean!” I practically cry out. Because this really upsets me.
“It’s for his own safety,” Jennifer interjects. “If you recall, he was intoxicated and planning to drive . Not a good mix.”
“What’s going to happen to him?” I wonder.
“I don’t know,” Mom says, grabbing her drink and taking a long, fortifying sip.
Damon’s mom seems to study my face, then says, “He’ll stay in jail until tomorrow morning.”
“And then what?” I ask.
“Van will pick him up—since Tripp and Rocky seem to clash more—and will try to get him to go to a rehab facility,” Lori replies.
“And if he won’t?” I ask.
“He will be brought back to the resort, given his keys, and sent away. He will also learn that due to his behavior, he’s been banned from the resort.”
“Isn’t that kind of harsh?” I ask.
“Considering the way he just acted here, I would think that would be considered the opposite of harsh,” Damon states as he returns with bottles of water for us. Jennifer scoots her legs over, so he sits down. “They are trying to keep him safe from himself. ”